Bekah Mckendry: The History Of Haunted Houses

Haunted houses are a thrilling tradition around the globe and they are incorporated into many families halloween traditions. Haunted houses have been around since the beginning of time, but just in different ways such as snake traps and spider infested treasure rooms. Little did the ancient egyptians and the romans know that they were starting a worldwide phenomenon that has never died for over 300 years! How is that?
To begin, stated in “The History of Haunted Houses” an essay written by Bekah McKendry the ancient egyptians, greeks, roman, and the medieval dark ages used scare tactics in religion and to guard they booty, treasure booty that is. Mazes, moving walls, self opening doors, and snakes were used on a regular to keep people from stealing. The greeks used mazes, labyrinths, and monsters in there religion and in their folklore to tell stories about the greek gods and goddesses. Lastly in the dark ages, the celtic and pagan religions used frightening stories to scare away christians and to try and make them believe in

So in the early 1900’s when the freak show had it’s roaring appearance in the theme parks, people started seeking out haunted homes and haunted attractions. Haunted Houses are popular today because people love fear, the fact that you are being scared but not actually in a life or death situation, charities also figured that out so as soon as the calendar hit october 1st the charity's started setting up haunted corn mazes, houses, and scary decorations all over town to raise money. A gallup poll said that ‘’ 37 percent of americans told gallup they believe in haunted houses…” America knows this so that's why haunted houses and other haunted attractions are so popular the creator of haunted attractions use that as a way to make